Originally Posted By: JosieC
Unfortunately I don’t have the budget (or perhaps the patience) to invest in a new DAW at this stage of my life.

Download Reaper and give it a test drive. It is free to try and has no time limit or feature/function limit during the trial. When you do decide to purchase it only costs $60!

Lots of folks here use it and can help you out. Watch an hour or so of free tutorials and I bet you'll be as comfortable with Reaper as you are with RealBand! And then when you want to use a modern technique like side chain compression you can just do it! And I'll bet you'll really enjoy the streamlined interface on Reaper too! I save so much time because it works in a modern way like most other 21st century software! smile

Reaper Download
http://www.reaper.fm/download.php

Free Tutorials
http://tutorialsforreaper.com/category/tutorials/
https://www.youtube.com/user/TutorialsForReaper
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=reaper%20tutorials%20free